Maine Governor Paul LePage has ordered state workers to remove from the state labor department a 36-foot mural depicting the state’s labor history. Among other things the mural illustrates the 1937 shoe mill strike in Auburn and Lewiston. It also features the iconic “Rosie the Riveter,” who in real life worked at the Bath Iron Works. One panel shows my predecessor at the U.S. Department of Labor, Frances Perkins, who was buried in Newcastle, Maine. The LePage Administration is also renaming conference rooms that had carried the names of historic leaders of American labor, as well as former Secretary Perkins. The Governor’s spokesman explains that the mural and the conference-room names were “not in keeping with the department’s pro-business goals.” SOURCE

“I have listened to all the speakers,” she said. “I would not have further patience for talk, as I am one of those who feels and suffers from the things pictured. “I move that we go on a general strike.” The audience stood and roared its assent. In the days that followed, 20,000 to 40,000 workers, women and men, went on strike. They were backed by wealthy patrons, many of them suffragists, who provided bail money and small stipends. In February 1910, most of the factories agreed to recognize the Women’s Trade Union League as the representative for the workers. SOURCE

But maybe parts of the world are realizing that it’s all bullshit. With the Wall Street bailouts in particular, folks have noticed that while governments are cracking down on pesky workers, it’s those same people that have paid for the bailouts, and for a system that does not ultimately serve its people but, instead, a select few who have no intention of trickling down anything.